Detailed record for Royal 19 E V

Author

Benvenuto d'Imola, translated by Jean Miélot

Title

Romuléon

Origin

Netherlands, S. (Bruges)

Date

1480

Language

French

Script

Gothic cursive (bâtarde)

Artists

Master of the White Inscriptions

Decoration

9 large and 2 one-column miniatures in colours and gold with full (f. 32, 196) or partial (62, 98v, 125, 160v,233, 238, 280, 336v, 367) foliate borders, and initials in colours with penwork decoration in gold or foliate initials in colours and gold, at the beginning of books (except f. 233). Some miniatures with instructions to illuminators (ff. 62, 125, 196 trimmed, 233 trimmed, 238 trimmed). Initials and paraphs in gold on blue and rose grounds with penwork decoration in gold.

Dimensions in mm

475 x 335 (290 x 185)

Official foliation

ff. 418 (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end, and 1 unfoliated modern parchment flyleaf at the beginning and 2 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaves at the end)

Form

Parchment codex

Binding

BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1985. Gilt and gauffered edges.

Provenance

Edward IV (b. 1442, d. 1483), king of England and lord of Ireland, made for him in 1480, probably in Bruges: the royal arms of England surrounded by the Garter with the motto 'Honny soit qui mal y pense' and surmounted by a crowned helm with a mantling in Edward IV's colours of red and blue and a crest of a lion, with the royal arms differentiated by labels of three and five points for Edward's sons, Edward, prince of Wales, and Richard, duke of York; the royal arms on banners (f. 32), and the Yorkist badge with the motto 'Dieu est mon droit' (ff. 32, 196); the date of '1480' inscribed in the background of a miniature (f. 367v).The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): included in the list of books at Richmond Palace in 1535, no. 32; included in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix, f. 13.Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.

Notes

Includes the Romuleon of Benvenuto da Imola, compiled c. 1361-1364, at the request of Gomez Albornoz, governor of the city of Bologna, in the French translation of Jean Miélot of 1463 ('Et fut ledit traittie translatte de latin en cler franchois par sir Jehan Mielot chanoine de Lille en Flandres l'an de grace mil quatrecens soixante et troiz en la fourme et stille plus au long declare', f. 336); preceded by a list of contents (ff. 1-31v), and followed by an alphabetical index (ff. 397-418v). The script is close to the formal bastard secretary of manuscripts produced by David Aubert between 1458 and 1479/80, but is not in Aubert's hand (see Mc Kendrick 1994).Only five other complete manuscripts of Miélot's French Romuléon are known: Besançon, Bibliothèque Municipale 850; Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale 9055 and 10173-4; Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana Med. Pal. 156, vols 1-2; and Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria L.I.4, vols 1-2; they all were produced in the Southern Netherlands. Catchwords and bifolium signatures.

Scot McKendrick, ‘The Manuscripts of Edward IV: The Documentary Evidence’, in 1000 Years of Royal Books and Manuscripts, ed. by Kathleen Doyle and Scot McKendrick (London: The British Library, 2013), pp. 149-77 (pp. 171-72).